Christian Scott

Christian Scott
A jazz trumpeter, composer and producer from New Orleans, Christian Scott has produced eight studio and two live albums, earning a Grammy nomination for 2006’s Rewind That.

Sophie Caby
Born in Paris, Sophie Caby is a Los Angeles-based photographer. Her work focuses on people and landscape, and has been published in Harper’s Bazaar, Elle Magazine, Madame Figaro and Intersection. Caby’s first solo show Terminus Los Angeles opened at Wilding Cran Gallery.

Jose Diaz
Jose Diaz is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles, CA.

This month Christian Scott unleashed his latest project, a staggering album and accompanying app—aptly titled Stretch Music—that deftly and defiantly expands the jazz vernacular he’s been carefully tweaking since his label debut in 2006. Born in New Orleans, Christian Scott grew up surrounded by music. By the age of 13, he was well-immersed in the contemporary jazz scene, performing with his uncle, saxophonist “Big Chief” Donald Harrison Jr. Graduating top of his high school class at the distinguished New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, Scott gained a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston, and by the time he closed out his twenties, he was a Grammy nominated musician with seven studio albums under his belt. Yet for all these impressive—even daunting—accomplishments, Scott seems more concerned with pushing forward than with crafting a legacy to leave behind.

Respect for the past is important. Inclinations to replicate it are not. Scott undoubtedly offers a fresh perspective to a genre that so rarely feels it, but what most stands out about the Christian Scott genre of jazz is how socially and sonically relevant and exciting it is while still being classically evocative. There is an underlying sense of urgency in Scott’s sound, an insistence on reevaluating the genre he inhabits and seeing how far he can will it to stretch, without indulging in notions about his role in redefining jazz. Each record is purely and unapologetically his own, enveloped by his personal tastes and experiences. This is the music of his generation, the music he’d want to listen to. This is jazz created for the culture and context of now.